Image Credit: Davi RussoOscar nominations were announced this morning, and while The Fighter, The King’s Speech, True Grit, and The Social Network all racked up plenty of nominations, there were a few glaring omissions: Christopher Nolan was nominated for best original screenplay, and Inception was nominated for best picture, but Nolan was not nominated as best director? Hrmph.
For actors, I was really hoping to see Ryan Gosling get a nod for Blue Valentine. Nominee Michelle Williams has been earning tons of praise for her performance, and rightly so, but Gosling’s seeping misery infects the entire film; for a character who can be so awful, he’s also strangely easy to love. (Well, mostly.)
Speaking of frighteningly miserable characters, better luck next time, Barbara Hershey. Her maniacal mother character in Black Swan might as well have been a super villain named The Nail Clipper, and I loved every second of her creeptastic, wide-eyed performance. Black Swan is obviously Natalie Portman’s movie, but Hershey gave it some emotional context and depth.
Oh, Oscars, no love for Andrew Garfield’s fascinating performance in The Social Network? What about Julianne Moore’s funny but also heartbreaking turn in The Kids Are All Right? Sigh.
Your turn, PopWatchers: Who do you think got snubbed?
NOLAN!
Audiences like Nolan. Critics like Nolan. The Academy does not. Ah well, I can’t see him caring. He wants to get on with making movies.
Nolan is the 1970s & 80s Steven Spielberg. Makes entertaining films, makes quality films and has made films that are both. For some reason if you do that it takes a long time for the academy to get around to giving you any recognition as a director. They’ll shower your films with noms for everything else, but somehow all that good work has nothing to do with the directing.
Interesting correlation, Everton, but not entirely accurate. With the exception of the snubbing for The Color Purple, Spielberg was nominated for intelligent “popcorn” flicks pretty regularly, picking up noms for E.T., Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Close Encounters (which was NOT nominated for best picture, coincidentally). Once he got “serious” with Schindler’s List, he actually won a trophy….but not before the Academy made him the youngest recipient of the Thalberg Award. He did alright.
You’re right about the noms around the late 70s and 80s. I should have been more specific. The Colour Purple situation was a joke and the nominations he received for best director came accross as nominations that it was obvious were never going to win. However he did get them and Nolan has not so if anything Nolan is in an even poorer position than Spielberg was.
Also like many an “aging” actor who gets a lifetime achievement award when people realise that somehow they’ve never won an Oscar despite being one of the best actors around for ages, Spielberg’s award seemed almost like an apology for years of him missing out on the big prize.
Ironically if they’d waited untill the 90s they would have seen there were many films worthy of awards to come from Spielberg.
Schindler’s list was his fourth “serious” film I think.
Well Corrected Bobby, thanks.
@therealeverton–I don’t think Spielberg was nominated for Best Director for Color Purple, was he? I seem to recall the Academy made it a point to nominated the film for everything else BUT that.
This is kind of a silly article. I hate it when critics and journalists come up with a list of snubs. It’s like saying those who got the nominations aren’t deserving of them. It’s obvious that there were WAY MORE than 5 best actor and actress performances last year. It’s OBVIOUS that the 5 nominated aren’t the TOTAL/ACTUAL BEST. So it’s kind of pointless to say: “oh my god, look who got snubbed!?” Not everyone can get nominated. I mean, how can the Academy list 5 actors/actresses/directors etc. out of the hundreds of eligible/well deserved films out in 2010? The journalist writes about Hershey, Gosling, and Nolan being left out. Well, Ms. Lyons, if they had been nominated, would you have wasted your time writing about those who got bumped out? How about you brave up and write a balsy article in which you not only list those who were snubbed, but list those who should be replaced. That would make much more sense.
So many of Spielbergs movies revolutionized film making, time and time again. Yet, little artsy films that are identical to the last artsy film take the trophy, generally speaking. The Academy is awfully limited in vision, and pretentious.
@ Meli
No he wasn’t. That’s what I was talking about, sorry if i wasn’t clear there.
@Lincoln: While I don’t agree with the tone of your comment, I do agree with the logic behind it. It’s not necessarily a popular sentiment, but if we are going to talk about who got snubbed from the big party then we should also be brave enough to say who shouldn’t have been invited, so to speak. Everyone will have a differing opinion on who should have gotten in, that’s the easy part. And you are right; if Gosling had gotten in, would that same journalist then be aghast over the ommission of say a Jeff Bridges or Javier Bardem? There are only so many spots. Overall, I think you are correct; a much more interesting and informative conversation happens when you start justifying why Ryan Gosling’s non-nomination is a “snub” based on the work of actual nominees deemed more worthy of a shot at the hardware. Unfortunately, the way it works is that route is more difficult, won’t earn you many friends in Hollywood and therefore, the road less traveled.
@ Lincoln – Nail on the head. That has always bothered me, too. Stupid to talk about snubs without talking about who got the nod that shouldn’t have.
i just can’t believe inception got nominated for best art direction, best cinematography, best sound mixing and best sound editing but NOT best editing? …really? that’s like nomming a movie for best actor, actress, supporting, and director but not best picture… it really doesn’t make any sense
No editing nom for Inception?! Ridiculous.
Seriously, the last 40 minutes of that movie was like a master class in editing. Like gangbusters it was!
agree
The last thirty minutes of the movie dragged on and on. There were far too many shots of the men trudging through the snow.
Actually the cross-cutting in that film was pretty average, even maybe sub-par. I don’t care for the academy all that much, but I do think they were on the money here by leaving out Inception.
The editing was the weakest part of the movie in my opinion. Once we hit the James Bond ski-chase, the movie became a long, slow slog to the finish line.
I work in editing, and to make a plot like that work at all for a 2.5 hour movie is pretty amazing. To not even get a nomination is appalling.
Yeah, I thought the editing was the best thing about Inception. At least the sound editing got recognized.
I’m OK with Inception missing out on editing – some parts were fantastic some less so; a nomination should indicate a consistent level of quality. However, I am still not over the fact that Memento did not win Editing.
Completely agree; Inception got snubbed in at least two categories: director and editing.
That was a big surprise to me, too. So much of how that movie made sense can be attributed to the editing, as well as how you interpret the end of the movie.
I completely agree! I was sure Inception would be nominated for Best Editing, because I felt the third act of the movie was a masterpiece of editing, weaving all the different levels of dreaming together.
I agree that the snow-fight portion of Inception dragged on and on. The movie was good, but not great, IMHO. I think the over-praising of this film has caused me to like it less, which is unfortunate because it’s a good movie.
Incpetion was overrated. I know that sounds contrarian, but it’s so. It was good, certainly. I liked it and would rewatch it. But it wasn’t even Nolan’s best movie (neither was Dark Knight, BTW).
Snubbed in editing, that I would agree with. It should have got that nom.
Sighs, overrated is a super smug and excessively used term.
It’s not smug to find imperfection in something a lot of people like. It’s a fine movie; it’s not the beat-all, end-all. Do you really want me to detail my issues with the movie? I’ll start with the fact that the “twist” ending was overshadows its own point, which is (without spoiling it) it no longer matters to him. Everyone is obsessed with “is it or isn’t it” when the character is in exactly the opposite mindset.
If you can’t see how calling something overrated makes you seem smug, I don’t know what to tell you.
eh – I don’t think he’s being smug for calling it overrated. He’s not responding to the quality of the film but rather the fervor people have built up over it.
Exactly, caryn, thank you. Overrated = regarded too highly for what it is. But hey, if people have to resort to insulting me because I disagree that their favorite movie rules all, that’s fine. At least they didn’t roll out the tired old “Why don’t you go watch Eclipse or A-Team again?” jab.
the directors’ branch of what 300 people must really not like Nolan — this is the second time where every organization recognized him and snubbed him here. It’s insane to think that they can’t even nominate for what is clearly a great job as director. It’s sickening.
Didn’t the directors guild actually nominate him like 3 times (for inception, dark knight, and maybe memento?). I am too lazy to look this up
It seems to me the directors of the Academy have a difficult time with non-American directors. Ang Lee should’ve won for CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON. And it took BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN for him to finally win (although the movie lost the Best Pic award). Same goes for Nolan, who’s British.
Everyone is saying this is the biggest snub, and maybe it is, but the biggest snubs this year are in the documentary category. No “Waiting for ‘Superman’”? No “A Film Unfinished” Geez, I’m most disappointed about that
Also disappointed at no “Superman” nom.
Also: only 4 songs nominated this year? And none from BURLESQUE?
The list of best song nomination is ridiculous. Burlesque’s “Bound to You” deserved a nomination. That song is stellar. The song catergory is usually ridiculous anyway so there’s no real surprise that the BEST movie songs out last yere were not nominated.
I didn’t like the songs from Burlesque.
I agree. I find it odd that Diane Warren won a Golden Globe for the Cher ballad, and yet no Oscar nom.
They should just cut the song catagory, they don’t even sing them at the show anymore!
Resident Evil – Afterlife! Best 3D category.
Upset about Barbara Hershey not being nominated. Love her, love that performance. She’s been great in all her movies (Hoosiers, Beaches (along the wonderful Bette Midler) and Portrait of a Lady)…
I agree, her performance contributed mightily to the emotional and suspenseful foundation of the film. I will just have to be happy Aronofski cast her, as her presence in a quality film is always welcome. Now if an A director would cast Meg Foster in a quality film, all would be right with the world.
Agreed. I was surprised to find he wasn’t nominated because I thought he might win. Inception was an amazing movie, but I think it might get snubbed win in the awards show. It’s like the Academy if afraid to give too much praise to a hugely successful movie. Granted, sometimes I think they are right, for example, I think The Hurt Locker deserved best picture over Avatar. However, sometimes it feels like a low budget movie has better odds at the Oscars because it’s somehow “more deserving.”
Biggest snub: no Scott Pilgrim.
Amen! Scott’s relationship with the moviegoing public is just heartbreaking and tragic.
“Why does Hollywood keep making [awful] movies? Because when a good movie comes out, no one goes to see it!”
-Guierellmo Del Toro on Scott Pilgrim.
Saddened and will not be watching the Oscars,
John
Andrew Garfield was the biggest snub to me. One could argue that Jesse E. shouldn’t have been nominated without him, because I feel it’s their RELATIONSHIP which makes the film.
Same with Michelle getting a nom but not Ryan.
They are both symbiotic performances to me.
well said!
I am truly in mourning over this snub. What a fantastic year he had between this and Never Let Me Go (in my opinion his better performance, but both would have been good enough for my top 5 supp). Boo Oscars and their reluctance to recognize cute talented young men. Guess you either have to be slightly unattractive (Jesse) or in a tour de force (Franco), for them to notice you.
What? I’m pretty sure it has nothing to do with cute boys.
I think they just had too many supporting actors in Social Network splitting the votes.
Garfield isn’t cute, so I don’t think it had anything to do with looks.
Garfield is HOT!
agree!
@dee – I’m with you about Andrew Garfield in Never Let Me Go. That performance has stayed with me more than almost any other this year. Robbed, robbed, robbed. And please – Jeff Bridges??? I couldn’t understand much of what he said. Ryan Gosling should have had that spot. Love the Coen Bothers, but TG is just not up to snuff. Ben Affleck & Christopher Nolan should be feeling the hurt today.
True Grit is a pretentious remake. It’s well made, sure, but is absolutely nothing special…imo.
I love the Coen brothers. Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, Fargo, No Country for Old Men – all fantastic, innovative movies. I was really excited about seeing True Grit with the Coen brothers leading it. But the most compelling thing about this version of True Grit is the Charles Portis story itself. The direction was just OK and not one of their better efforts. Christopher Nolan, Derek Cianfrance and Danny Boyle were much more deserving.
I completely agree. He drives Jesse Eisenberg’s character, the two of them make it so interesting!
Agree. Without Andrew Garfield, Jesse Eisenberg’s portrayal wouldn’t have been nearly as compelling. They were both mind blowing and I wish both had been nominated.
Jesse Eisenberg played Jesse Eisenberg. Andrew Garfield had a lot of range and emotion. I also loved Sam Rockwell in Conviction. He played the brother. I feel like he was amazing but was a less-crazy brother than Christian Bale played (who was amazing too).
His work in Never Let Me Go was heartbreakingly good as well
agreed, which keeps me confident that he’ll see this day come eventually.
Andrew Garfield was more deserving of a nom than Jesse Eisenberg. Jesse was essentially playing himself as imagined by Aaron Sorkin i.e. he talks faster than Jesse Eisenberg might. It’s like nominating Michael Cera for one of his many roles as Michael Cera(and I like Cera and Eisenberg). Ryan Gosling should have got that nod.
Have you met Jesse Eisenberg? I think you are seriously discrediting what was actually a very difficult performance. Garfield was fantastic, no doubt, that doesn’t mean Eisenberg wasn’t.
See, I liked Garfield in the movie, but I never saw what all the fuss about about. Eisenberg blew me away. He brings an almost heartbreaking blend of cockiness and insecurity that I found brilliant. Meanwhile, I didn’t think this was Garfield’s best performance this year even–he was outstanding in Never Let Me Go and Red Riding (was that this year?).
Wasn’t Michael Cera in The Social Network?
I agree that Ryan Gosling is the biggest snub for me. However, I do feel you’ve missed Jesse Eisenberg’s performance. I’ve seen him from Roger Dodger/ Squid and the Whale to Adventure-Zombie-Land and this was a revelation.
i agree garfield stole that movie…when he realized he only owned .3% of facebook it gave me chills.
I loved all the performances in The Social Network; still, of all of them, I would have liked to see Armie Hammer get some love at awards season.
Agreed. To me, Andrew Garfield was the best part of the movie.
Ugh. I agree. Andrew Garfield was fantastic in the Social Network & his relationship with Jesse was awesome. And Ryan Gosling, what a shame for that snub as well. They’re both great actors.
Oh, and no Mila Kunis for Black Swan?!
At least Mila Kunis knows this performance hugely raised her profile. She’ll get lots of opportunities from it.
Hailee Steinfeld should have been in the Lead Actress category. Wasn’t she in almost every frame of that movie? Put her there, put Mila Kunis in Supporting. BUT, my favorite surprise was Jacki Weaver for Animal Kingdom. That was a well-deserved nomination. Check her out.
Completely agree. Garfield had one of the best supporting roles of the year. Eisenberg’s character depended on the relationship they had. Garfield, to me, was the biggest snub.
Maybe Garfield can console himself with a big pan of lasagna. Heh. I know, it was pretty bad, but someone had to do it.
Could not agree more!
ANDREW GARFIELD was snubbed. His portrayal was complicated, realistic, had a difficult accent (Brazilian-American played by a Brit), and had to be the heart and soul of the entire movie. He deserved the nod.
Who should he replace? Garfield lost out to what is a “you’re in the club” Career Oscar Nom for MARK RUFFALO, who is always great but “The Kids” is far from his best work (if the nomination were for his awesome acting in “Blindness” it might be deserving). Replace Ruffalo with Garfield
I agree. That’s a real disappointment. Garfield was pitch perfect, and that was not an easy role. I liked Ruffalo, too, but Garfield deserved it more, and Eisenberg’s role made much less sense without Garfield. Oh, well…Andrew will have plenty more opportunities in the future.
Surprised there’s no Oscar love for The Town – not even in the screenply category?
The Town was a great movie!!
I really don’t get what everyone liked about the Town. I thought the characters were one-dimensional and the plot trite.
With you there. Overblown.
Yeah..I was kind of bored while I was watching it, too. (But I had read the book, so I knew what was going to happen).
Maybe you should’ve put down your Ken doll, and watched the movie, Stacie.
The Town had some glaring problems with it’s plot. Spoiler Alert! Come on, like the FBI agents would all be standing in the window huddled around the girl at the end because there’s no possible way the mastermind criminal might have a pair of binoculars. Also, the movie gave no context as to why this girl would even like this guy. Because he likes to wax sensitive in the garden? She seemed a little smarter than that. Plus I hate monologues at the end. They’re usually overly sentimental and seem like a cheap tool to quickly wrap up the movie. The one at the end of The Town didn’t break this notion.
Sorry, it should be “its plot.” Don’t want to make the same spelling mistakes so frequently found in the articles. It’s ok ew.com, I still love you.
Agreed. This was robbery.
No love for the bean town boys – The Fighter is in there for best movie, best supporting actor and two best supporting actresses, but no love for Marky Mark? The you get Renner for the town – and he deserves it – but no nod for the movie itself, or Ben for directing. You know he can direct – even Blake Lively was good.
Mark Wahlberg is an Oscar nominee now, as producer for Best Picture.
Your comment made me laugh out loud because I’m with you on the whole Blake Lively thing! I haven’t seen The Town yet (it’s at home right now) and was hoping that Ben could do something with her because she’s mostly a horrible actress. BTW, have you seen any clips of her in Green Lantern? Terrible!
Wahlberg has been nominated before–best supporting actor for The Departed
No one is saying Mark wasn’t good. His category was so stacked with good performances that there just wasn’t room for him. kind of like ryan gosling….
Mark Wahlberg cannot act so this was not a “snub”. The Academy got it right. Every movie he’s in, he ruins any scene he’s in. He was the one flaw in The Departed, such an amateur.
He’s successful now only because he strapped on a prosthetic in Boogie Nights. Not because of talent!
It was an over-hyped movie!
I think it’ll take awhile for Ben Affleck to be recognized as a very good director due mostly to his dalliance with JLo and a couple really horrible movies he starred in. He’s absolutely prooved himself with Gone Baby Gone and with The Town. That movie was well done. Not saying it’s right. Someday…
I’m surprised The Town wasn’t even given at least a token nomination for Ben Affleck, to encourage him to continue to direct. That’s where his true talent lies.
Yes! Disappointed with the film’s snub!
Robert Duvall. The Academy hates older actors, especially actresses … thus, no love for Barbara Hershey.
This. Beyond robbed. Colin Firth gave an Oscar-winning performance and it no way does a disservice to him or the other nominees to say that Robert Duvall acted them all under the table in Get Low. By far the best performance of theyear.
“Get Low” was such a “small film.” I enjoyed it but the few other people I’ve talked to who’ve seen it were bored silly by it. Robert Duvall was terrific, as he always is, but the movie just didn’t register with audiences.
Not understanding this comment. The Academy is often criticized for being too old and nominating older people based off their career as opposed to their performance.
Nice retort, and right on point!
Danny, I don’t follow your logic, but agree that Duvall should have been nominated. Should have won IMO.
The consensus on the imdb board is that the biggest snub is that Tron:Legacy didn’t get a nomination for Visual Effects.
I can’t speak to that point fully, in as much as i haven’t seen Hereafter, but I can see how the representation of “real” objects and people in fantastic ways is looked upon as superior to a totally artificial world. Making people seem to do impossible things in a hallway or in a park would get more respect than having good looking, but “artificial” objects do weird things in a good looking, but artificial environment.
ok but how do you then give Alice in Wonderland the nod over Tron?
For exactly the same reason. There are elements of Wonderland (Underland) that are fantastical but it is full of “real” people interacting, bodily, with “effects” people / creatures in some “real environments as well as the fantastical ones. Making people appear different in size relative to them, their clothes (again “real”) and other real people and objects.
Put a real girl in what appears to be a real suit of armour on real stairs, fighting a highly stylised, but realistic in appearance (as in it looks like it is in the same space as the girl) and to many it will be more impressive than a guy pretending to be in a bike made of light on a pretend race track.
To use a different example the Grand Prix in Iron Man 2 may have been no more difficult technically to achieve than the racing in Tron, but making a bunch of race cars, be the real or CGI, appear to race though what looks like a real set of streets and get sliced to ribbons, then crash and crumple and burst tyres, again either for real or CGI; to do all of that and make it believable is more impressive than having lots of “obviously not real” computer bikes race and crash and explode. It doesn’t make Tron’s visuals poor, just less impressive, because it takes less to make the unreal look good than it does to take something that we all know the look , feel and sound of do something impossible yet realistic.
I’m not saying i wouldn’t have nominated Tron, just that I can see why other films got the nod ahead of it.
Yeah this one shocked me. I didn’t love the movie plotwise, but the visuals were stunning – I felt like I was in the grid. Not to mention the young Jeff Bridges.
I was surprised by this as well. Maybe the Jeff Bridges CLU effects backfired, and those who saw that as the main effect for which to nominate the film found it shoddy and unrealistic.
Scott Pilgrim deserved it more. Also got snubbed.
I agree, it’s amazing how the original “Tron” didn’t receive an Oscar nom because the Academy felt that using a computer for FX was “cheating.” One of the things I loved “Tron Legacy” was the entirely believable computer world that was created. CLU on the other hand…
Nolan not getting a best director nod is pretty poor. The Kids are Alright is a very. very overrated film, BUT I admit Julianne Moore deserved an Oscar nom too. No way it should be on there for best film, there’s any number of better written, better directed films out in 2010. It was a decent movie with brilliant performances, no more, no less.
comedies rarely win
It could’ve been worse. It could’ve been The Tourist.
ANDREW GARFIELD
YES. 100% YES. He should have been nominated if only for the “I like standing next to you Sean, it makes me look so tough” scene in which he was perfect. Probably the biggest omission from the Academy, although Nolan’s absence is right up there.
Agreed!
Yeah. He was my favorite actor in that movie. I am now looking forward to the new Spider-Man
The Town did get a little attention….Jeremy Renner was nominated for best supporting actor
oops – you’re right, but it’s not enough!
and best supporting actress too
Milas Kunis snub for best supporting actress for Black Swan seems to be gaining traction on the web
Very suprised, although competition was fierce this year.
I hate to say it but I think Black Swan is losing traction. Apart from Portman it didn’t get much love at the Globes and it got all but forgotten at the recent Producer’s Awards. Still I wouldn’t be surprised if Aronofsky pulls an upset here, for his body of work and for standing up for Hollywood against Armand White, and pulls a surprise win for Best Director.
She was good, but half decent actress with come to bed eyes could have done that role.
shut up Jon lets see you do it!
Mila was ROBBED biggest snub this year!
while she was great, nothing about her performance was particularly award-worthy for me.
so disappointed for Kunis’ snub.
Although I thought Black Swan was rather boring, I really liked Kunis’ performance. It was definately her coming out party and if she continues to take good parts I think she may get recognition in the future
I don’t think Toy Story should be in both categories as Best Picture and Best Animated. Obviously it will win Best Animated since it was good enough to earn a Best Pic nod and the other two weren’t. It has no chance of winning Best Pic. Waste of a space.
…except that it was REALLY good! Certainly one of the ten best films of the year.
It was a boring rehash of the other Toy Story movies – nothing original at all. Tangled was a better, more realized story and should have been nominated.
Yea because Rapunzel hasn’t been rehashed a million times.
TANGLED.
Yes, except How to Train Your Dragon received just as many positive reviews as Toy Story 3, and both films received probably more positive reviews than some of the films nominated for Best Picture, yet only TS3 was put on the list.
Same thing happened last year with Up. It won best animated feature, and was nominated for best picture.
It would have been an injustice not to nominate TS3 for best picture, even if it does have its own category to rule.
Just because it can’t win doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be on there. In that case most years you could / should ony have 1 or 2 films nominated. It’s not the weakest film on that list either. On that point How to train Your Dragon was much better than The Kids Are Alright.
They should either get rid of the animation category altogether or not allow the films to be nominated for best movie. This way, is there any question at all which movie is winning animated? Similarly, you’re taking away a spot in best picture that has 0% chance of winning. Even if Toy Story was the best movie of the year, it’s not going to win best movie AND animated. Besides, both Tangled and Megamind were WAY better than How To Train Your Dragon -either should have taken that slot!
Megamind? Sorry but apart from my personal and critical opinion, other critics AND audiences rate How To Train Your Dragon far higher than Megamind, I thought Megamind was more fun than its reviews suggested, but its relative box office struggle tells a tale there. (And yes this is one of those instances where box office IS an indicator of opinion. It was a well advertised film, from a trusted and well liked brand, Dreamworks Animation.) It’s performance is indicative of t being less well liked than other films of its type.
You may find Tangled and Megamind more fun, or even more entertaining, but I challenge you to critique the dialogue, voice acting, direction, camerawork, cinematography, editing, score, use of 3D to enhance the storytelling and visual experience and demonstrate that either are superior to How to Train Your Dragon.
Also the animated film category was introduced because too many animated films, (particularly the work of people like Miyazaki) were not getting the recognition they deserved. Now as the academy slowly gets “younger” members it maybe that we now have a situation (especially with 10 films now listed for Best Picture) where animated movies are treated with equal respect as their live action counterparts. But until that’s certain we shouldn’t take away this category. Too many beautiful films get no Oscar glory as it is.
Actually, How To Train You Dragon kinda sucked. We didn’t see it in 3D but it looked HORRIBLE on our TV. A movie needs to hold up in both 3D and 2D…and the 2D was pathetic. The story was predictable and boring – the story from the actual book is MUCH better.
Elucidate. Sucked? Looked horrible? How? Why? When? The weight of critical and public opinion is against you and as a movie watcher AND someone who has studied media and film I have to agree with the majority of critics that the cinematography, music, editing, sound, voice-work and script were all top notch. Was it better in 3D, of Course, just as Coraline was, because it actually used 3D to play with the depth of field; just as Lawrence of Arabia is better in full widescreen glory. It works perfectly well in 2D too though, the colours and shading are excellent, again the camerawork, from “faux” steady-cam to crane and wire is some of the best I’ve seen in a CG toon and the story was certainly no more predictable the overwhelming majority of films that get made, or books that get written.
Also the book was better applies to most films of books since the beginning of the industry and is hardly an indictment on this or any film.
So what about the artwork, camerawork, mise-en-scene etc, led it to be “horrible”; as opposed to something you just didn’t like. (Which happens with all films, nothing is universally liked, nothing ever will be.)
I’m waiting for the day there is a subcategory for Animated Feature. It is time, absolutely time, for the Academy to recognize voice acting in animated features by giving them their own category. More and more animated films are being made by different studios and they’re pulling in major celebrities to voice those characters. And if the audience doesn’t buy that voice in that particular role, the film doesn’t work. So instead of contracting this category, I’d love to see it expanded.
@ Meli
Well said. I remember Eddie Murphy getting a BAFTA nom for Shrek. They do very good work in the best animated movies and perhaps recognition outside of Animated awards ceromonies is overdue.
Why is this same criticism not put forward when a foreign language movie gets nominated in both Best Picture and Best Foreign Language Picture? Life is Beautiful and Crouching Tiger should have had no competition in the foreign category by this logic – since they also made the best pic list and the others didn’t…
wow good point! It has what, a .5% chance of winning best pic? It shouldn’t be there. But it just says that it’s definately going to win best animated (I personally enjoyed HTTYD more.)
Biggest snub for me was Ryan Gosling for sure. I mean Javier Bardem over Ryan Gosling? Please. Plus I can’t believe Michelle Williams got in, but he didn’t. If they both would have been snubbed it would have been one thing, but Gosling was so much better than Williams, though both were amazing, but Gosling gave arguably the best male performance of the year. Certainly better than Bridges, Bardem, and Eisenberg anyway.
Next biggest snub was Andrew Garfield, who I was sure was a lock for a nomination at least. I was also hoping to see Black Swan in original screenplay, but I’m not heartbroken about it.
Totally agree about Ryan Gosling! The only reason Bardem got was because of his Hollywood BFFs like that loudmouthed sellout Julia Roberts, who should stick to making useless chick-flicks rather than deserving indie movies — such as Erin Brockovich which she won an Oscar for.
Have you seen Bitiful? If you’ve actually seen the movie I don’t believe you can make the statement you made.
WTF woman, Bardem was outstanding in Biutiful. Gosling was amazing as well, but I think he should have taken Bridges’ spot, not Bardem’s.
Agreed – complain about Bridges, not Bardem. I mean, Jeff is great, but he essentially acted drunk and mumbled.
Ryan Gosling himself said Javier Bardem deserved a nomination. Not that it should have been in his place, but before you say Javier scored it on his friends’ words perhaps you should see the film. I have, and he was phenomenal.
Agree 100%. Ryan was perfection.
Ryan is great and really deserved a nomination.
Of course I agree with most saying, Nolan. Coen Brothers get nominated by doing an okay remake?
I thought the same thing. They could’ve made that movie in their sleep.
It wasn’t a remake. As you can see aboove I think Nolan & Inception have gotten a raw deal, but True Grit was a very good film of a very good book and had some great performances in it too.
The best performances in True Grit were from Barry Pepper, Matt Damon and Dakin Matthews. All the recognition for that film is going elsewhere.
True Grit is a remake that was also based off a book. The movies are extremely similar as much as people like to point out their subtle differences.
would you suppose then that every version of A Christmas Carol is just a “remake” of the 1908 version?
They are similar because they are based on the same book. It isn’t a remake. Kenneth Branagh’s Henry V is very similar to Olivier’s, because they are the same story, based on the same play, told in slightly different ways. That isn’t a remake, anymore than the other Myriad versions of Shakespeare’s plays are remakes or Zemeckis’s A Christmas Carol is a remake of The Muppet Christmas carol, which isn’t a Remake of Scrooge and so on. They are similar but there’s a different focus and for my money having seen both films AND read the book, the new version is better. It doesn’t matter because the other version is good too (and I’m no Wayne fan), but this isn’t a remake. Also you really don’t think Hailee Steinfeld gave a great performance in her “supporting” role?
Well now if we want to go into snubs of True Grit, why not Matt Damon for Supporting Actor? He held his own against Jeff Bridges.
Actually, I was surprised by the performance of Haley Seinfeld in True Grit. The way her performance was overpraised, i expected to be blown away. She was okay, but I didn’t really believe her in the role. Of course, the remake itself was wildly overpraised, probably due to the Coen love and to the rarity of a decent western. Look, I liked the film but it wasn’t as good as the original, and for all the talk about how the remake was gonna be more faithful to the novel, i found the original more, well, true to the book.
So, we’re comparing True Grit to Shakespeare and Charles Dickens now? Or just The Coen Brothers? Is it your contention that because there’s “outside source material”, it’s NOT a remake, regardless of the similarities to the previous film version? DePalma’s Scarface is widely considered a remake, despite being vastly different from the original film. He even dedicated the film to Howard Hawks and Ben Hecht. And yet, the original Hawks film was based on a 1929 novel by Armitage Trail. Still not a remake? How about both editions of The Front Page, His Girl Friday, and Switching Channels? All loosely based on the stage play, yet all the film versions share common elements that exist only in the films, not the stage play. Planet of The Apes? Remake? How about Soderberg’s Solaris, which shares more in common with Tarkovsky’s film than Stanislaw Lem’s novel? Where is your line of demarcation? And why does it matter anyway? Re-boot, re-imagining, re-interpretation….variations on a theme. Some are vastly superior to their counterparts (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Heaven Can Wait, The Italian Job), and some are not (Psycho, Sabrina, Lolita, Get Carter). Being a remake is not necessarily an evil thing. If, in a couple of hundred years, there have been 80 film versions of True Grit, it will occupy the same vaunted status as Shakespeare and Dickens. Until then, moving the eye patch from Rooster’s left eye to his right eye does not make it a stand-alone work.
Christopher Nolan for Director, The Town for Picture and Screenplay, Barbara Hershey for Black Swan, Tron for Visual effects and art direction, Alice in Wonderland for Score and makeup.
…hey, at least your guy John Powell got a nod, right?
Poor Leo – great performances (Shutter Island and Inception)…no love. Well, except from me.
What about Julianne Moore!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I`m getting used to see Julianne Moore being snubed. Her performances are really incredible but soon it will be a decade since the last time she was nominated
The fact that this woman does not have one, let alone a half dozen oscars on her mantle at home is a crime. Each performance she gives is amazing and all of hollywood should be worshiping the ground this red headed beauty walks on.
I honestly didn’t expect Julianne Moore to get a nomination because of category confusion (supporting or lead), but I wish she did. I thought she gave the best performance in The Kids are All Right.
Agree with the anguish about Moore… She is definitely the most talented actress sans Oscar right now. (And Laura Linney nipping at her heels, love her too!)